American Exceptionalism

Public Citizen

✔@Public_Citizen

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Critical audience

Abraham Lincoln, in a letter, 1855

 "Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we began by declaring that 'all men are created equal.' We now practically read it 'all men are created equal, except negroes.' When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read 'all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and Catholics.' When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty — to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy."

This is brilliant!

135,000 people sign a petition to rename Fifth Ave. in front of Trump Tower ‘Obama Avenue’

Read the story. 

Iceland loses its first glacier

A memorial plaque ... and a letter to the future.

How Capitalism Exploits Our Fear of Old Age

For decades, ageism has been one of the “isms,” along with racism, sexism, and ableism, that are unacceptable in progressive discourse and illegal under U.S. anti-discrimination law - at least in theory. Yet ageism against older people remains the most unexamined and commonly accepted of all our biases.

Read it. 

My first book of poems.

'It makes me angry': is this the end for America's Joshua trees?

It makes me angry, too. I grew up in a family that frequently camped weekends in the Mojave desert, so I could use my telescope under perfect skies. Joshua trees were a mainstay. I love them. Now ...

Read the story.

Caruso

Cowardly NYT, or how do you headline a liar?

lexandria Ocasio-Cortez

✔@AOC

Let this front page serve as a reminder of how white supremacy is aided by - and often relies upon - the cowardice of mainstream institutions. https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/status/1158546596252061696 …

Nate Silver

✔@NateSilver538

Tomorrow's NYT print edition.

Not sure "TRUMP URGES UNITY VS. RACISM" is how I would have framed the story.

Who takes the lead?

Not us.

'Youth and Workers Uniting Behind This Crisis': German Labor Union Urges 2 Million Members to Join Global Climate Strike

"This is leadership. Who will follow? The world is watching," said 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg

Read it. 

This is us

Prof Glaude gets to it.

Check it out.

Aug 3, 1959

The day I joined the Army. 60 years ago. The experience changed everything. For the first time I hung with humanities folks, not science folks. I took up drinking as a social tool. I started reading literature in s new way. I embraced a romantic view of the artist. My "big brothers," fellow Russian linguists, reshaped my view of the world. I never recovered ha ha.

The Physicists

A 1964 German film based on my favorite play. If you know the play, you can follow along. No English subtitles.

James Baldwin would have been 95 yesterday

Weird but good

Iced coffee made with tonic water. 

Hot

Hanging in on a hot day. Early morning kitchen work ... marinading beets to roast; made zucchini fritters, for dinner or breakfast tomorrow; spent a lot of time with the dog. Keeping as cool as possible.

Clergy from the National Cathedral publish an open letter rebuking Trump: 'Have we no decency?'

Man, it's about time.

Read the letter.

R.I.P. Harold Prince

Harold Prince Dies: Broadway Legend Who Produced Original ‘West Side Story’, ‘Fiddler’, ‘Phantom’ & More Was 91

Read obituary. 

Amazingly enough, I received this letter from him early in my career:

Thank you for letting me read The Comedian In Spite Of Himself. It's impressive work.I'm up to my ears with three projects for just this season, and I don't respond obsessively enough to your play to want to commit myself further. But, as I said, it's first rate.

Harold Prince
Producer, Phantom of the Opera etc.

He did not get the script from me, so this letter was a shock. I learned that what happened was this: a NY actress was in Pdx and saw the play at the New Rose Theatre. Not only did she love it, she wanted to be in it. So she got a script from the theater and passed it on to her friend, Prince.

It is obviously satisfying when such a major theater figure calls your work "first rate" and "impressive." But he was too busy putting together Phantom of the Opera  ha ha.

On and on and on

Eric Holthaus

✔@EricHolthaus

This week, 40 billion tons of ice will melt in Greenland as the European heat wave moves north -- enough to measurably raise global sea levels.

This single heat wave will create a permanent change in our oceans that will linger for millennia.

We are in a climate emergency. https://twitter.com/xavierfettweis/status/1155765949850673152 …

Xavier Fettweis@xavierfettweis

A heat wave is starting tomorrow over Greenland with Tmax reaching 25°C in tundra. The integrated anomaly of melt over the next 5 days (resp. over Summer 2019) will be 40Gt ~0.11mm (resp. ~0.65mm) sea level equivalent. Summer 2019 = what the models project for 2050 using RCP85.

Old age

I am beginning to experience old age as a tad pathetic. The smallest chore can be a challenge: brushing my teeth, making a pot of coffee. Trying to write, I begin one false start after another. Reading my last plays, I realize I will never be that good again. Fortunately I still love cooking and planning our meals. The new dog presents distraction and play. Jazz still moves me.

But the end is near. I can feel it.

The American System Is Already Failing By Andrew Sullivan

The awful truth is that the American constitutional system is failing on almost every level. The system, it turns out, is not even strong enough to withstand one Trump term, let alone two. Trump intuited this in 2016, and if he wins reelection, as he now has a good chance of doing, what’s left of liberal democracy will be under acute duress.

The “extinction-level event” that I feared in the spring of 2016 is already here. Look around you. And it wasn’t even a fight.

Read it and weep. 

Flesh & bone v. the Imagination

I was reading an old play of mine this morning when it occurred to me that the people I create on the page of a play are very real to me. In fact, at times in my life, my created people have been more real to me than the flesh & bone people in my life at the time, and as you can imagine, this has caused conflicts from time to time. Is creative writing at this level a form of mental illness?

Active amateur astronomer through high school,, six inch f12.5 reflecting telescope, homemade.
Highlights include camping in Mojave desert, h.s. grad, college grad. LA friends, US Army.

We don’t have 12 years to save the climate. We have 14 months.

Read it and weep.

No way so if this is true, it's over.

The Stiff

At the end of my 1975 political farce THE STIFF, a character says that people get the leaders they deserve.

This, unfortunately, appears to be the case in the U.S. at present. Bone Spur squeaked by through the Electoral College but he still has millions of supporters. This, in my view, is a profound failure of K-12 education, where clear thinking and the principles of our government should have been taught in a way to stick. 

Need a 'Blueprint to Remove Trump'? Look at What Puerto Ricans Did in Just 16 Days

"In less than 16 days, Puerto Rican Gov. Ricardo Rosselló is expected to resign after mass protests. I can't even recall all the horrible shit Trump has done in the last 16 days."

by

Julia Conley, staff writer

Read it. 

Fat chance, alas.

Mueller testimony

I predict a bust, relative to progressive expectations of nailing Bone Spur in criminal activity. Hope I am wrong.

Surprise, surprise

Been feeling a tad isolated out here in Milwaukie ... but this is changing. Ends up, a number of former theater artists in Pdx are escaping this way. I ran into one, saw a play here directed by a woman who had directed two of my plays in the 80s, a fan of my work. Haven't talked to a fan in ages ha ha! So it's nice to have some compatible folks in the area. And then, today, a former PSU colleague emailed me in search of "good conversation." Another possible connection. Looking up.

Letter to Omar

From England, tens of thousands signing:

“We are disgusted by Donald Trump’s attack on you. His blatant, unashamed racism has appalled people around the world. You embody the best of America. Its diversity is its strength. Thank you for showing the world that America can still provide leadership to be proud of, even when the White House has abdicated that role. We stand in solidarity with you.”

Heat

The Pacific NW has been extremely lucky with its recent weather.

The late, great?

To scholars of fascism — who have been ringing the alarm bells since Trump began his

climb to power in 2015 — the rally in Greenville felt like an escalation. Like the U.S.

just made another leap toward outright fascism.

“I am not easily shocked. But we are facing an emergency,” tweeted Jason Stanley,

a Yale University philosophy professor and author of the book “How Fascism Works.”

“Journalists must not get away with sugar coating this,” Stanley wrote. “This is the

face of evil.”

Read it and weep. 

So small

The earth as seen from the moon.

The Guardian view on Donald Trump: a racist in substance and style Editorial

Read the editorial.

Six shocking climate events that happened around the world last week

Read it and weep.

Article of the day

Donald Trump's racist tweets show he doesn't understand America

Read it.

No understanding of "a melting pot."

Or it might show the opposite: he understands how racist the country actually is.

Make yourself at home

Mirror

Despite the "Passing" annual checkup I feel like my quality of life is slowly fading. Arthritis, unexpected expenses, this and that ... not the vacation retirement of fantasy. Hangin' in like Gunga Din.

War, Memory and Gettysburg

Chris Hedges on war. As moving and incisive a reflection as anything I've read recently.

New summer drink

I drink a lot of iced coffee, even in winter. Last night I read an article about a new rage: iced expresso and tonic water. I am trying it this a.m. and it's pretty good. Might have more.

Meet Liddy, our new family member

A one year old terrier mix. Met him several weeks ago, pathologically shy but something about him ... decided on a second look but he was sick ... finally well and we looked again today and he was a different dog, full of energy saying, Adopt me! adopt me!, jumping up on us, licking our faces ... so we did.

His adjustment is remarkable! He crashed at the foot of my chair and napped within hours at our strange new home for him. Later he napped in Harriet's lap. He likes it here. We like him here. 

p.s. About the name. The dog was a stray in Calif, shipped to rescue facility in Tualatin, and named there, Little. We didn't like the name but he was used to it. Harriet changed it to Liddle, then Liddy for short.

Baumholder 1961

Charles juntunen reviewed Baumholder 1961  the book leads up to the crisis when the Berlin Wall was built by East Germany in 1961 March 29, 2019 I was in Baumholder in 1960-62 stationed in the same Army intelligence unit as the author. The book captures the zany life of buddies dealing with the seriousness of their work and their off duty time partying, avoiding soldiers from the combat branches who like to fight, and chasing the local "bar girls", many of whom were East German spies. It struck me as entertaining and realistic. Reminds me a bit of "Catch 22" by Heller. I phoned the author and we agreed - "if you weren't there you probably wouldn't believe it".

Check out the novella. 

USA 2-0

More lopsided than the score. Heroic N goalie. N had no offense, first shot at goal in 77th minute! Many by USA throughout game. But USA held scoreless in first half.

Best to come: accept AOC invitation to House of Rep and thumb noses at Bone Spur.

Heart v. head

On paper the U.S. should win the WC today. They will celebrate "We told you so."  USA! USA! etc.

The Netherlands are the Cinderella team, a role the US once played. I'll be rooting for them. Football/soccer would be better off by their upset. A longshot, yes. I hope it happens.

Global Effort to Plant a Trillion Trees 'Overwhelmingly' Among Most Effective—and Cheapest—Solutions to Climate Emergency: Study

Read it.

'We Are in a Climate Emergency, America': Anchorage Hits 90 Degrees for First Time in Recorded History

Who cares?

Billionaire bunkers: How the 1% are preparing for the apocalypse

Read about it.

Still kicking

Annual checkup yesterday, came out like gangbusters. All vitals excellent. Low BP, low cholesterol, lost some weight ... looking good. So I'll probably drop dead later today ha ha.

World Cup

I've always been a fan of the women's U.S. football/soccer team. Until now. Their excessive celebrating during a 13-0 rout turned me off. It was the Yankees going bonkers playing a Little League Team. No class. So in the semi's I am rooting for England and Netherlands. U.S. needs a little humility. However, I admit they are damn good. All the same, they were lucky to beat Spain, as Hope Solo herself has written. They are beatable. So let them be beat and go home and think about it.

Context

Canadian Political Cartoonist Michael de Adder Let Go for Submitting A Too On-The-Nose Cartoon.

Read the story.

Damn, I miss Sketch

Nature's music

Grim New Report Shows Rent Is Unaffordable In Every State

Greenland is melting

Sled dogs wonder where the snow is.

Donald Trump and the Art of the Lie By Andrew Sullivan

Nails it.

“I like the truth. I’m actually a very honest guy,” President Trump told a slightly incredulous George Stephanopoulos this week. Like almost everything Trump says, it was, of course, a lie. But it was a particularly Trumpish kind of lie. It was so staggeringly, self-evidently untrue, and so confidently, breezily said, it was less a statement of nonfact than an expression of pure power.

For Trump, lying is central to his disturbed psyche, and to his success. The brazenness of it unbalances and stupefies sane and adjusted people, thereby constantly giving him an edge and a little breathing space while we try to absorb it, during which he proceeds to the next lie. And on it goes. It’s like swimming in choppy water. Just when you get to the surface to breathe, another wave crashes into you.

Read it. 

World Cup

I'm a junkie and enjoying every game. Like U.S., Australia, Germany, Brazil.

A loss would be good for the U.S. A little humility.

Oh my!

Full-time: USA 13-0 Thailand

And there it is. The United States have kicked off their World Cup title defense with a resounding statement, getting a record-setting 13 goals from seven different scorers, also a record. Cold Cutthroat. Clinical.

Morgan (12’, 53’, 74’, 81’, 86’)
Lavelle (20’, 56’)
Horan (32’)
Mewis (50’, 54’)
Rapinoe (79’)
Pugh (84’)
Lloyd (92’)

Progress

Headline in The Guardian:

Four in 10 Americans prefer socialism to capitalism, poll finds

• Axios poll reveals 55% of women aged 18-54 prefer socialism
• Majority of men would rather live in a capitalist country

Read it. 

All the more reason to elect LOTS of progressive women.

Go Bruins!

Headline of the day

New Report Suggests ‘High Likelihood of Human Civilization Coming to an End’ Starting in 2050

The climate change analysis was written by a former fossil fuel executive and backed by the former chief of Australia's military.

Read it

Headline of the day

Obama receives 'MVP' chant and standing ovation in

 Toronto, Trump gets protests in UK

"Nobody gives a shit"

I watched a documentary about the explosion of flight TWA 80, arguing that evidence points to a missile, not the official gas tank explosion explanation. They convinced me. But what stuck was the comment of a family member who lost someone on the flight, significant years later: "Nobody gives a shit."

Which can be said about many issues today.